Engineering Expo winners announced

Senior engineering students put their year’s efforts on display at the Engineering Expo April 23 at the Raven Precision Agriculture Center. 

The winning entry was a drone battery swapping station entered by Justin Potts, Daniel Messerli, Mason Krause, Ethan Ellender and Cory Kleve. They built a modified drone and landing station that swaps drone batteries autonomously, allowing for a quick and self-sufficient swap. The portable station can be powered by wall power or a battery.

Second place went to the team of Marcus Decker, Riley Spilde and Adam and Alan Cowl, who redesigned the drivetrain for the off-road Baja vehicle for the Society of Automotive Engineers contest.

Tying for third were a sprayer trainer stand (see photo and description below) and a wearable intravenous sleeve designed by Dalton Anderson, Nathan Lawrence, Connor Gress, Jonah Coffel.

Sponsored by the College of Nursing, the objective was to create a realistic apparatus for training student nurses to insert an IV. The product was required to provide a realistic flashback response upon successful catheter insertion, mimic human skin properties, withstand repeated use without degradation and incur minimal maintenance costs.

Computer science majors (from left) Cole Masterson, Logan Gregg, Alex Hoy and Brady Van Overschelde built an app to control a robot arm and collect as much data as possible for artificial intelligence research. The data is then used to create a 3D model of the arm’s positions. 

Project sponsor is assistant professor Kwanghee Won in the computer science department. It is envisioned that the information gleaned from this project could eventually be applied to industrial applications.

Mechanical engineering majors Adam Karschnik, Spencer Lutz, Hunter McMath and Jada Mindt created the 2024 version of the wheelchair accessible mower for Agriculture Beyond Boundaries. 

A similar mower was built last year, but the 2024 team's new mower design features a rigid platform for the wheelchair to ride upon to improve ride stability, replacing some electrical controls with mechanical controls to reduce lag time issues, and safety devices unique to wheelchair users.

Karschnik said this year’s version is close to becoming a marketable project for sponsor Lee Freisen, who created Agriculture Beyond Boundaries in 2022 to honor his late father. The motor, cutting deck and drive axle are from a JaZee Country Clipper. The entire front portion of the mower is the students’ design.

Pictured, from left, are Spencer Lutz, Jada Mindt, Adam Karschnik and Hunter McMath.

Electrical engineering major Cameron Jensen explains to Steve Hietpas, an electrical engineering professor, the motor system for a rover built for a NASA contest. The team of Jensen, Leif Bredeson, Andrew Clark and Tjaden Wright are responsible for building the motor system for the Space Trajectory rover that will compete in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge June 10-12 at Huntsville, Alabama.

The electrical engineering seniors created a custom mother board that talks to controller boards, which control motors on the rover, which also will serve as a dump truck to haul “lunar” soil. The new independent power system reduced the amount of required wiring, which was challenging to debug when problems occurred with the 2023 rover, Jensen said.

The Space Trajectory team must have reports to NASA by May 30 on the system’s excavation rates and other performance criteria. The means the excavator and dump truck must be operational well in advance of that. The SDSU team is one of six finalists competing for a $1 million grand prize.

Daniyal Khurram Chaudhary, a mechanical engineering major, explains a seed-pod planting drone to Tyler Hanks, coordinator of the college’s production lab. A group of nine SDSU engineering students created a seed pod drone and dispenser for sponsor Jerry Natzel of Owatonna, Minnesota, who intends to put the final product design on open source through the internet.

Nate Post, left, and Tyler Potts explain their sprayer trainer stand to a judge. The project, sponsored by lecturer Nic Ulik, is designed as a demonstration and teaching unit for ag students. It tied for third among the Engineering Expo logo. It has multiple sprayer heads for pulse width modulation along with recirculation plumbing.